{"title":"Long-run inequality persistence in the U.S., 1870–2019","authors":"Carlos Gayán-Navarro, Marcos Sanso-Navarro","doi":"10.1007/s11205-024-03309-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper studies the long-run persistence of inequality in the U.S. With this aim, both income and wealth inequality measures covering the period from 1870 to 2019 have been analyzed. The persistent character of inequality has been assessed using unit root and structural break test statistics for time series. Furthermore, the determinants of inequality persistence have been explored by implementing Bayesian model averaging techniques in a generalized linear model framework. Our results suggest that the wealth-to-income ratio displays a non-stationary behavior throughout the whole sample period. On the contrary, the Gini index of disposable income and the top 10% income share alternate between I(0) and I(1) regimes. We also find that, while a higher level of globalization increases the persistence of income inequality, it is inversely related to the levels of educational attainment and trade union membership.</p>","PeriodicalId":21943,"journal":{"name":"Social Indicators Research","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Indicators Research","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-024-03309-8","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper studies the long-run persistence of inequality in the U.S. With this aim, both income and wealth inequality measures covering the period from 1870 to 2019 have been analyzed. The persistent character of inequality has been assessed using unit root and structural break test statistics for time series. Furthermore, the determinants of inequality persistence have been explored by implementing Bayesian model averaging techniques in a generalized linear model framework. Our results suggest that the wealth-to-income ratio displays a non-stationary behavior throughout the whole sample period. On the contrary, the Gini index of disposable income and the top 10% income share alternate between I(0) and I(1) regimes. We also find that, while a higher level of globalization increases the persistence of income inequality, it is inversely related to the levels of educational attainment and trade union membership.
期刊介绍:
Since its foundation in 1974, Social Indicators Research has become the leading journal on problems related to the measurement of all aspects of the quality of life. The journal continues to publish results of research on all aspects of the quality of life and includes studies that reflect developments in the field. It devotes special attention to studies on such topics as sustainability of quality of life, sustainable development, and the relationship between quality of life and sustainability. The topics represented in the journal cover and involve a variety of segmentations, such as social groups, spatial and temporal coordinates, population composition, and life domains. The journal presents empirical, philosophical and methodological studies that cover the entire spectrum of society and are devoted to giving evidences through indicators. It considers indicators in their different typologies, and gives special attention to indicators that are able to meet the need of understanding social realities and phenomena that are increasingly more complex, interrelated, interacted and dynamical. In addition, it presents studies aimed at defining new approaches in constructing indicators.